Report of the Committee on Strategic Planning
for the Year ending June 30, 2001

During 2000, the Committee on Long-Range Planning (CLRP), convened via email and a key meeting on August 29, 2000 convened by Committee Chair Bob Frosch to develop a draft strategic plan for the Society to help shape future program, membership, and chapter activities. In particular, the Society's Executive Committee asked the CLRP, subsequently renamed the Committee on Strategic Planning by the Board, to provide advice on a wide range of matters, the most urgent of which were some committee issues that require feedback before the next board meeting in November 2000. The committee deliberated in the following areas:

Membership Surveys and Program Priorities. In previous CLRP deliberations, the committee developed a set of priority areas for program development. The committee reviewed surveys of the membership, which confirmed the committee's perceptions. In particular, program areas identified as the likely core areas for the Sigma Xi Center were confirmed as high priority areas in these surveys, namely education, ethics, public understanding of science, and science policy (health of the research enterprise).

Committee on Awards. The executive committee asked for advice on how to select members for the Committee on Awards after the directors-at-large rotate off of the board. After some discussion, the committee agreed to recommend a five-member committee of directors comprised of a chair and four directors, two each from among those elected by geographic regions and by constituency groups, respectively. Each year one from each category would be selected by the board to serve two-year terms. The president would invite suggestions for candidates (board members) from the geographic regions and constituency groups, and would select from among the suggestions from these groups as well as from other board members, two nominations to be put forward to the board for a vote. If these nominations are confirmed by the board, the elected members would serve two-year terms on the committee. When necessary, the president would invite suggestions from board members for board members to be nominated, and if confirmed by the Board, to serve a three-year term as chair of the awards committee.

The committee further recommended that the awards committee would be charged with selecting the McGovern award winner, since the committee recommends elsewhere that the programs committee be disbanded. Since the McGovern Award winner in recent years has been selected in conjunction with the forum, the committee would convene electronically to make this selection early enough in the year to accommodate the forum planning activities. In addition, to the extent that Science Education awards are still being made by the Society, responsibilities for making these awards, formerly held by the programs committee, would also be assumed by the committee on awards.

Executive Committee Membership. The executive committee asked for advice on how to select the non-statutory members of the executive committee Ð in even-numbered years a constituency group director and in odd-numbered years a geographic regional director. After some discussion, the committee felt that these appointments are board appointments of individual board members rather than as representatives of caucuses on the board. Hence, the committee recommended that the president would invite suggestions from the group as appropriate to the election required in that year (i.e., regional directors or constituency directors) and would put one or more candidates before the entire board for election.

Committee on Programs. In the wake of an unclear charter and recent inactivity, the LRPC recommended that the programs committee be abolished and its functions assigned to a reconstituted and renamed LRPC, except for selection of the McGovern Award and Science Education awards, which, as noted above, would be assigned to the awards committee.

Coordination of Standing Committees. Since committee chairs no longer serve on the board, the executive committee asked for advice on how committee activities should be coordinated and/or communicated to the board, if necessary. The committee subsequently recommended that the immediate past president assume the responsibility of being an ÒearÓ for the board for issues from committees that might require coordination among multiple committees and that might require board action for resolution. The committee also suggested that the immediate past president could serve as a monitor of the activity levels of committees, providing periodic reminders for promoting increased levels of activity on inactive committees.

International Expansion. The committee discussed the issues associated with the Society's decade-long efforts to expand internationally. After some discussion, the committee endorsed in principle a proposal for international expansion prepared by the executive director and recommended that the executive committee instruct the executive director in conjunction with the international committee to formulate the plan of execution in detail and implement it as a pilot program, keeping the executive committee and the board informed regarding its progress. The committee suggested that the new international organizations outlined in the proposed plan be termed ÒInternational Sigma Xi PartnersÓ or some similar name to distinguish them from traditional chapters as established under the Society's constitution and bylaws. The committee noted that some international chapters now have full regular standing, and should continue to maintain such standing. International chapters would have the option of becoming regular chapters under the usual rules, or of joining an ÒInternational Sigma Xi Partner,Ó or both at once.

Sigma Xi Standing Committees. As requested by the executive committee, the LRPC reviewed the overall structure of the Society's standing committees and forwarded the following recommendations to the Board of Directors for consideration and possible action:

• Abolish the programs committee (consolidate responsibilities in a new Committee on Strategic Planning).

• Encourage much more active recruitment, appointment and involvement of members with development experience to serve on the development committee.

• Encourage more action on the part of the diversity committee to build program activities, especially to design programs that can attract external funding.

• Change the name of the LRPC to the Committee on Strategic Planning to better reflect the charge and activities of the committee. The committee also recommended a change in the committee membership as follows. The outgoing president would appoint a member to serve a three-year term; the president would nominate one member annually to be confirmed by the board and to servea three-year term. The four officers would serve ex officio. The chair would be selected in the usual fashion, i.e., as necessary upon conclusion of a three-year term, a new chair would be nominated by the president and confirmed by the board. Hence the committee would be comprised of 10 members and the chair, two of which would turn over annually (in addition to the routine officer turnover) and the chair would turn over every three years (but could be re-elected once under the current board policies).

• Promote much more use of electronic communication as the means for conducting much, if not most of business of many if not most of the committees, especially between annual meetings.

All of the above recommendations were forwarded to the November 2000 meeting of the Board of Diectors who subsequently approved the reommendations.

Vision for the Society. The chair asked for the executive director's views as a starting point for a discussion of a future vision of the Society. Dr. Blair recapped his perspective, focusing on the role of the Sigma Xi Center as both a place and a portfolio of programs that would: (1) build upon the Society's relative strengths, i.e., using the grass roots and interdisciplinary character of the Society to distinguish its role from other organizations, (2) comprise a portfolio of activities for which some prospects of external funding could be identified, (3) engage the chapters and members in the execution of programs, and (4) focus initially on areas of interest to the membership as revealed in the surveys: education, ethics, public understanding of science, and science policy. While the committee expressed no formal view of this vision, it was in general accord with it.

Membership of the Committee for the year ending 30 June 2001 was:
Robert Frosch, Chair
Raymond Fornes
Marye Anne Fox
John Gibbons
Peggie Hollingsworth
William Little
Emir Macari
Alan McGowan
John Prados
Ann Williams